Norv won't say it, so I will.
Norv Turner's Oakland Raiders beat the Washington Redskins yesterday afternoon. This was not simply a football result that could have gone either way. The universe demanded it.
Dan Snyder had a comeuppance coming.
You see, Norv was hired by (local) legendary Redskins owner, the late Jack Kent Cooke, in 1994 (I think) when the Redskins totally sucked.
[The "I think" refers to the date: The Redskins' sucking was indisputable.]
[Full disclosure: I am a lifelong Cowboys fan. Watching the impact of Mr. Cooke hiring a Dallas Cowboys coach, which for Redskins fans was like receiving a blood transfusion from Satan himself, was delightful.]
Cooke died a few years later, and the 'Skins were purchased by a brash, incredibly rich, highly-accomplished 34-year-old marketing guy/NFL neophyte named Dan Snyder who managed the team like a fantasy football team, spending wads of cash on guys who had great stats in previous years under the mistaken assumption that past performance would be indicative of future results - a dangerous assumption when considering investments, but an absolutely catastrophic approach on draft day for your fantasy league.
[I'm not going to tell the whole story. Do this Google search: +Snyder +Redskins +"free agents" +multi-million +suck. You'll probably find enough material to write a book.]
Norv got them into the playoffs in 1999, and then he was fired in the midst of a playoff race in 2000 in a particularly undignified manner (details in links below) when the team was 7-6.
The Washington Redskins have not seen 7-6 since.
Now, Norv apparently was not the great motivator during his tenure here. He never managed to get the team back to the level it enjoyed under Joe Gibbs, who led the Redskins to three Super Bowl victories. Fact is, though, when Gibbs retired (I think) in 1993, the team was on a downhill spiral. Gibbs - I'm speculating here - had not figured out how to deal with the looming salary cap and had lost the energy for the incessant effort required for continued success in a drastically changing environment.
Norv made a couple real bad draft choices and the team lost a bunch of close games. But they generally were competitive.
And given the assumption that success at coaching a sports team is essentially a long-term proposition because you have to develop the people and familiarity among team members, and you have to allow the organization to grow continually through experience until everything clicks, the Redskins could have been successful if everything was allowed to play out.
[If reading the first two clauses in the previous sentence caused you to expel your beverage through your nose, please forgive me because I am an idealist. Coaches being allowed to develop a team over time: What a concept.]
Anyway, Norv came back yesterday and against the odds his current team beat the team owned by the guy who had tossed Norv out onto the street.
The local press corps tells the story better than I can:
And the Redskins who made the killer turnover, the crucial mental mistake -- and lost a game they coulda, shoulda, woulda won. Seems like that was always happening in November and December when Turner was the coach. Five years later, it's still happening, despite the efforts of Hall of Famer Gibbs. What conclusions are we to draw from that?
More
here:
Q: Snyder fired Norv for losing back-to-back nail-biters at home to the Eagles and Giants when we were 7-6 and still in the hunt. Is he going to fire Joe Gibbs for losing back-to-back close ones to the previously punchless Bucs and the loathsome Raiders?
A: No way. Not even Snyder would dare dump a Hall of Fame coach during the season. RFK barely has half the seating capacity of the Big Ugly by the Beltway; otherwise, Danny might be ready to reclaim the stadium where Coach Joe ruled.
Maybe Jack Kent Cooke really did build his team's house on an ancient Indian burial ground; not much has gone right for the Redskins since they moved to Landover...
Q: With the Chargers, Cowboys and Giants all coming here, plus trips to St. Louis and Philadelphia, can we still make the playoffs?
A: It sure doesn't look that way. It doesn't even look likely the Redskins will finish with a winning record, which still would leave Turner the last coach to post one for the Redskins.
That was back in 1999, before Snyder was able to put his stamp on the team. Norv trumps Danny again
Truly classic commentary comes from the Washington Post's sports columnists. Registration is required, but believe me it's worth the trouble to do so and read these in their entirety.
If you love to hate the Redskins, that is.
Thomas Boswell:
Norv Turner said a few words of appreciation to his Oakland Raiders. Not many, because words aren't his best thing. Then he gave a game ball to the guy who made the sack that clinched a 16-13 victory over the Washington Redskins at FedEx Field yesterday. No mention of his nearly seven years as the Redskins' coach, including his final season, when he was fired in the middle of a playoff race despite a winning record.
Short and sweet by one of the NFL's classiest, most popular, but indisputably middle-of-the-pack head coaches. However, veteran Warren Sapp, perhaps the only man in the room who could steal the stage from the head coach, knew what the Raiders wanted done. So the 300 pounds of Sapp stood up and handed Turner a game ball of his own. "When you're unceremoniously dismissed in the middle of a season, you want to come back there and win," Sapp said. "Norv took over the Redskins when they were bad [in '94]. He took them back to the playoffs.
Michael Wilbon:
If it's irony you're looking for, how about Norv Turner softening up the Washington Redskins, setting them up to be knocked out next week by Marty Schottenheimer?
And, the best for last,
Tony Kornheiser:
It's almost five full years since Snyder fired Turner, on a Monday, one day after Turner's Redskins lost here to the Giants, 9-7; another close game Turner didn't win. After the game Snyder kept Turner on ice in the clubhouse area, instructing him to sit and wait like a truant. About two hours later, Turner shrugged and drove home, tired of being treated like a schoolboy. The next day Snyder canned him. The Redskins were 7-6 at the time. Hardly any coach gets fired in the middle of an NFL season, certainly no coach with a winning record. Snyder was saying, I'd rather have anybody coach my team than Norv Turner.
As it turns out, three people have coached for Snyder since. They're the brightest lights on the marquee: Marty Schottenheimer, Steve Spurrier and the legendary Joe Gibbs. None of them has yet been 7-6 with the Redskins.
Icing on the cake is, Marty Schottenheimer's Chargers are playing the 'Skins next weekend. Schottenheimer also did not get very nice treatment here from Dan Snyder. If you're interested, Google that one up for yourself. The upshot is there could be some more schadenfreude on the menu, not quite as sweet as Norv Turners's, but real, real close.
